{"id":186154,"date":"2025-08-30T02:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T02:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/186154\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T02:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T02:25:09","slug":"christopher-bell-bats-for-radical-change-to-nascar-playoffs-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/186154\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Bell Bats for Radical Change to NASCAR Playoffs System"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Bell may be rivals with Austin Dillon on the racetrack, but Bell agrees with Dillon that there should be a radical change to the current NASCAR Cup playoff system.<\/p>\n

Bell was a guest on this week\u2019s edition of the SpeedFreaks\u2019 Horsepower Hump Day podcast<\/a> and wants to see changes in how the playoffs are structured. He offered several options, but one is the system he\u2019d like to see implemented.<\/p>\n

Bell concurred with Dillon that drivers who do not make the playoffs should not be awarded any points in the 10 playoff races.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustin actually talked about that a while ago, and I think that\u2019s a great idea because you eliminate some of the interference that happens in our sport, where non-playoff cars are taking points every time away from the playoff guys,\u201d Bell said. \u201cI think there\u2019s positives and negatives that come out of that. But I think it\u2019s a great idea for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was also asked if NASCAR should listen more to fans and their suggestions, or to drivers and team owners, or to no one other than NASCAR\u2019s top officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an impossible question to answer,\u201d Bell said. \u201cWhat the fans want and what the drivers want are two completely different things. I can sit here and tell you from a driver in the sport that the way they crown a champion now with a one-race winner-take-all event is it\u2019s not a true champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that the champions of the old days are not viewed the same as the champions that we have today. I just think that there needs to be a bigger sample size of how you crown that champion. We\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dillon suggested a three-round championship battle for a certain number of drivers who have earned the most points in the first seven playoff races. But the question in Bell\u2019s mind is which three tracks?<\/p>\n

Why Does Bell Like the Three-Race Concept to Crown the Cup Champ?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that if it was a three-race round, those three tracks are so important,\u201d Bell said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s so tough. I mean, the fairest way is to make every race count and have a 36 race points champion. But we know that that\u2019s not going to happen. That\u2019s not the most entertaining way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of positives that come out of the playoff and having eliminations and stuff like that. So anytime that you narrow down that the number of races\u2014or the sample size that you have\u2014to crown the champion, the more illegitimate it can become. So whether that number is three, five, 10, 36, the bigger the number, the more legitimate of a champion you\u2019re going to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s choices of tracks in the proposed three-race championship round are quite interesting, as he nixes road courses and short tracks. Instead, he basically goes for the home run aspect.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy vote would be Atlanta, Daytona, and Talladega,\u201d Bell<\/a> said. \u201cWhoever scores the most points in those races becomes a champion.\u201d Yep, Bell is serious with those picks.<\/p>\n

The fact that those are the three fastest tracks in the sport, along with being the most likely to have numerous crashes that could either help drivers in the running for the championship or ruin their championship hopes, is an interesting thought from Bell.<\/p>\n

We thought, given his short track background, that Bell would include Bristol or Richmond, or maybe Martinsville, in the proposed three-race final round. Regardless, only one question remains: Will NASCAR ever listen to what drivers or fans want\u2014or will NASCAR continue doing things the way it wants to?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Bell may be rivals with Austin Dillon on the racetrack, but Bell agrees with Dillon that there…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":186155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-186154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115115348820100457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}